Apparatus for the manufacture of rubber articles from old or waste rubber.



T. GARE. APPARATUS FOB MANUFAGTURE OP RUBBER ARTICLES FROM OLD 0R WASTE RUBBER.

' APPLICATION FILED IULYZ. 190B.

. 1,002,667, Patented sep1;.5,1911. V

v Y @M u'isuTED sTATEs PATENT oEEIcE.

THoMAs GARE, 0E NEWBRI'GHTQN, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS EoR THE MANUEACTURE'OE RUEEERARTICEES ERoM oLD 0R WASTE RUBBER. .4

Speciiication of Iietters Patent.

Application ie'dauly 2, 190s. serial No. 441,643.

To all whom'fi't may concern.'

Be it known that I,`THoMAs GARE, a subject of'fthe Kingof Great Britain, residing at New Brighton, in theico'untygof Chester,

.the object is to provide means for producing by the process described in the specification belonging to the said application, india rubber articles such as .solld or tublar tires,

disks and the like, by forcing the rubber mass continuously from a cylindrical casing,

pr die of suitable section.

. The features which mainly distinguish my present invention from my said prior invention are the means by which "the pow? dered or reduced waste rubber is pressed to-` gether and forced through a mold or die 'together with means for freeing the rubber)1 from air while being pressed together and before being heated. 1

In the process. forming the subject of my said prior invention it is necessary in order to preserve the original character v of the powdered rubber, before submitting it to the action of heat to have it compressed under high pressure so that it is in a compact mass free from air, and I have found in practice that if the powdered rubber is forced by means of a piston through a chamber uniform in cross section, say a cylinder and suitable heat applied at a point or art of the cylinder sufficient compression ofpthe rubbe particles to get rid of the air cannot be .obtained and the resulting product is useless. On the other hand if resistance to the travel of the rubber powder in the cylinder is provided suliicienttto enable the pis-j ton to properly compress the owdered rubber say by reducing the cross sectionalarea of the cylinder or by having the cylinder bent at right angles then I have Lfound in practice thatthe compressed mass of pow--l dered rubber cannot be forced onward even` under very high pressure from the piston. y

According to my present invention I em:l ploy \a feeding screw rotating in a cylin drical casing whereby I am able to feed the powdered rubber to the mold or die where it is heated to the required degree while the friction between the powdered rubber inthe feeding screw and the casing retards the forward travel ofthe rubber sufficiently to effect the necessary degree of compression to free the mass #from '-air, the air being perf E mitted to escape through holes in the cylindrical casing or in the surface of the screw if a hollow screw/be used. I attain these objects by the means .illustrated in the accompanymg drawing, in which- Figure 1 is alongitudinal section and Fig. 2 a cross section thereof on line A-A. of an apparatus constructed.. in 1` accordance with one embodiment of my invention. Figs. 3 and 4 are longitudinal sections of^two other embodiments of my invention.

Inl carrying out my invention and ref ferring to Figs. 1 and 2,5a is acylindrical casing inside of which a feedscrew e rotates. vided with,a hopper d. The screw c is f ed from'the said hopper with powdered. old or waste india rubber in a dry non-plastic state. This screw extends along the casing The feed end of the casing a is proa and holes f are formed in the wall of the casing a or screw e or in both -for the air to escape from the rubber as it is being pressed together ,and fed toward the compacting tube b where it is subjected 'to heat and takes the desired cross sectional shapeand is then cooled while passingthroghlthe die, "C eitherby water or acurrent ofair asis well understood, when thefarticle will lbe finished. When forming air holes f in the screw e', the latter isma'de hollow for the air.C to leave through the center of the screw at the outer' end thereof.

`The rubber is shaped in the compacting tubeband to shape it gradually the latter vmay be tapered from a circular cross section where it adjoins the pa'rt a to the point, for` instance at A-A,where the cross section ofy 'the mold corresponds with the shape 'which the rubber is desired to take.

The die c must be of' such. cross sectional area and shape as not' to undul retard theV "travely f the material after 1t has been fused and shaped and at the end next the compacting tube thedie c is preferably, and

. in cases where the material` 1s' in av state of fusion) at this point necessarily, formed to correspond in internal cross section though it may be enlarged or altered in shapeto 116 ward the other `end where the mater'al becomes cooler and is set to- ,the4 desired shape.l Thus by modifying the parts b and c articles of various cross sectional shapes can b'e produced. "Thesaid tubular mold. may be made in 3 sectionsand bolted togetherl as shown, the middlepart or comv pacting tube section b being surrounded by a jacket g to confine the heat around it, which heat may be generated by a Bunsen burner or any other suitable means. v l

\ To the delivery end ofthe screw e a stud or mandrel J1., see dotted lines, maybe secured forming acore, around which the rubber will spread and thereby produce a tubular article iiisteadof a solid'one. t

Referring to Fig. 3 according to another embodim nt of my invention, for producing solid articles, say for instance a tire,I may 201form the space Z between the threads of the screw e of a section corresponding withithe section of. the article to be produced'aiid thereby cause the screw to present 4the com-- pressed powdered rubber to the mold part in the form which it is desired to assume. The feed end of the casing a of the screw is also provided with a hopper such as shown in Fig. 1 and its` delivery end with a heat jacket. g. In this embodiment, the thread of .the screwe may increasein pitch from .the feed to thedelivery end of the appara- `tus in order to reduce the friction of the molded rubber at the delivery end or die m of the apparatus whereit is heated and to 3,5 insure a central delivery. yFor the latter purpose a die m is 'secured to the. delivery end of the screw e, the inner end of ewhich communicates with the end of the screw thread space Z and the outer end of which 40 is central with the screw e and adapted to rotate in the jacket g. In some cases I may complete the whole Operation, that is to say, completel y `inish the article in the hereinbefore described apparatus; or to producetsay a tire endless and thus obviate the joining afterward, may after having pressed together the rub- 0er only agglutinate the rubber particles inthe said apparatus and then place aportion of the thus partlyv treated material in and lock it into an annular or. other. suitabl'fy7 Shaped mold of corresponding section and afterward subject it therein to the desiredf heat as will be readily'understood without '55 illustration. y

Y Referring to-Fig.4 according to another embodiment of my invention, I may em-.

ploy a, cylindrical mold .b inconnection with a screw e the' mold being allowed to slide, Slowly away from the screw as' the rubber is fed in and siiflicientl -coinpressed or vice versa.l In this case t e mold b which has also holes fJ for theesca xe of air and may hbe fori'ned in sections, is placed over the l casing a andbymeansof a weight n or its 4 .sired temperature.

provided with a stud or cmandrel L, as shown' in dotted lines. After` this mold has been lled as'v described, the. ends thereof and the said air holes are plugged' and the mold then placed in an oven and subjected to the de- In ,some cases I may place a canvas tube inside lthe tube b or use a canvas tube in place of V.the latter and thereby produce canvas covered rubber. It will be obvious that the powdered rubber used may be adulterated with brous material or oil as is customaryin ordinary rubber manu-yl -facture and in which case I may adda small Lpercentage of sulfur.

I am aware that it has been proposed to manufacture articles of rubber such as sta1npst`ubes, bars, felt and cable coverings from regenerated rubber or from raw rubber or rubber compounds by forcing granulated material by means of a piston thr'dugh a heated tube and I make no claim to any apparatus so constructed.

yI claim: t f f h f 1. 11a ara us o t ere o'rmin Vof,rub ber ajticlerspfrom ypowderedwaste rbber'by forcing, comprising a solid single wall cylindrical casing having an inletfor the powdered wasterubber,l a screw in thesaid cas"- ing` fitting it and receiving and pressing the said rubber while .cdld and per! forations in the walls of the said casing in front of the said inlet for the escape of the air from therubber while being pressed, all

,combined substantially as and for the pur pose setforth.

2. An apparatus for the reforming of rubberNarticles from powdered waste rubber p by forcing, comprising` a solid single wall cylindrical casing having an inlet for powdered waste rubber, a screw in the said casing fitting it and receiving and pressing the said rubber while cold, perforations in the wall ofthe said casing in front of the said inletfor the escape of air from the rubber while being pressed, a' tube in alinement with and formin a continuation of the said casin into which the pressed rubber is force by the said screw, the section of the inlet lorice of the' said. tube coriesponding with that of the outlet orifice of the said casing and the section of the outlet orifice of thesaid tube with that of hthe article to be produced and means for heating and thereby reforming the rubber pressed into and forced through the said tube,` all combined substantially as and for the forth.

3. An apparatus for the reforming of rub yber articles from powe'deredwaste rubber by forcing; comprising a single wall cylindrical casing 'having an inlet for the powdered waste rubber, ascrew in the said cylindrical purpose Y set casing tting it and with thread spaces corresponding in section with the section of the rubber articles `to be produced'for receiving and pressing the said rubber while cold, and means in the said casing in front of the said inlet for the escape of the air from the rubber while being pressed,'all substantially as'and for the purpose set forth.

4. An apparatus for the reforming of rubber articles from powdered waste rubber by forcing, comprising a single wall cylindrical casing having an inlet for the powdered waste rubber, a screw in the said cylindrical casing fitting it and with thread spaces corresponding. in section with the section of the rubber articles to be produced for receiving l said screw, all combined substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

5. An apparatus Vfor the reformingof rubber articles from powdered waste rubberby forcing, comprising a singlev wall cylindrical casing having an inlet for the powdered waste rubber, a screw in the said cylindrical casing itting it and with thread spaces corresponding in section with the section of the rubber articles to be produced for receiving and pressing the said rubber while cold, means in the said casing in front of the said inlet' for the'escape of the air from the rubber while being pressed, a nozzle secured to the name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS GARE.

Witnesses:

Ammin BossHARDT, STANLEY E; BRAMALL.

-deli'very end of the said screw the inner end 

